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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
April 8, 2004
"The question was whether the wealthiest company in the world could circumvent the law. The answer was no." - Jerome E. Horton, California Assemblyman representing Inglewood, where voters this week overwhelmingly rejected a referendum that would have permitted Wal-Mart to build a 60-acre complex without having to comply with state and local environmental, planning, and zoning laws.
(1) GLOBAL WARMING: Forward Motion
(2) ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Interior Rip Off
(3) TAKE ACTION: Tell Your Senator to Oppose the Myers Nomination
1. GLOBAL WARMING: Forward Motion
Gas prices leaving you bummed at the pump? Ford Motor Company is taking a positive step in the right direction by announcing this week that it is planning to roll out three hybrid vehicles. The move by Ford underscores the fact that we have the technology to make cars go much further on a gallon of gas, saving consumers money, reducing air pollution, and curbing global warming.
Read more: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,61nx,km3,2r0b,ll72,irqz,5w4u
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,61nx,km3,ds0d,fbqs,irqz,5w4u
2. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Interior Rip Off
Alan Balaran, appointed to investigate the finances of a federal Indian trust fund managed by the Department of Interior, resigned this week. Several thousand Native Americans filed a class-action lawsuit against the government claiming they were cheated out of over $137 billion. Balaran claims energy companies are paying tribes far less than other landowners for oil and gas from their land. He also accuses the Bush Administration of failing to keep accurate records of the trust fund, something mandated by the American Indian Trust Reform Management Act of 1997. The New York Times says the judge in the case had "never seen greater government incompetence than the department had shown in administering the money and representing itself in court."
Read "Indian Fund Investigator Angrily Quits" in the New York Times: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,61nx,km3,403v,jddy,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Tell Your Senator to Oppose the Myers Nomination
The Bush Administration's penchant for extreme judges recently moved forward as the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines 10-9 to send William G. Myers III to the floor. Myers has argued that the Endangered Species Act regulations are unconstitutional and has called environmental regulation "outright, top down coercion." These kinds of statements raise serious doubts about his ability to make impartial judgments as a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He also has little litigation experience and received an "unqualified" rating from more than 1/3 of his American Bar Association review panel for the job.
Tell your Senator to oppose the nomination and to support a filibuster against this extremist nominee: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,61nx,km3,2eee,dbfs,irqz,5w4u
"...the foxes have been put in charge of the henhouse. The head of the E.P.A.'s Office of Air and Radiation, like most key environmental appointees in the Bush administration, previously made his living representing polluting industries (which, in case you haven't guessed, are huge Republican donors). On mercury, the administration didn't just take industry views into account, it literally let the polluters write the regulations: much of the language of the administration's proposal came directly from lobbyists' memos."- Paul Krugman in a New York Times op-ed column titled "The Mercury Scandal," April 6, 2004
(1) TUNE IN: Turn Your Dial to the Left
(2) MERCURY: Role Reversal
(3) TAKE ACTION: Energy Subsidies Gets Outsourced
1. TUNE IN: Turn Your Dial to the Left
Who said changing the world can't be fun? Air America Radio, featuring Al Franken's "The O'Franken Factor", is a new national radio network bringing you live political commentary. Listen to Franken, Chuck D., Jeaneane Garofalo and others bust political corruption while you bust a gut. Tune in to Air America 24 hours a day via the web or on your AM dial in certain cities and help give Americans an alternative.
Visit Air America radio: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,6043,km3,i3f9,8z9b,irqz,5w4u
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,6043,km3,ds0d,fbqs,irqz,5w4u
2. MERCURY: Role Reversal
Just because the Bush administration says something doesn't mean it's true. Take, for example, the Bush re-election website that says "the federal government has an important role to play in protecting our environment." So far that "role" includes increased warnings about eating mercury contaminated fish while at the same time allowing power plants to emit three times more mercury than the current law for a decade longer.
Read this Tampa Tribune article to see how Florida residents are lobbying for tougher mercury standards: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,6043,km3,ama7,dib6,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Energy Subsidies Gets Outsourced
Last night, proponents of the polluting energy bill broke apart the bill and attached $13 billion in tax breaks to an unrelated piece of legislation. The tax breaks overwhelmingly favor corporate polluters and reflect the broader failure of the Bush Administration's energy bill to take America forward. It is time to scrap this bill and pass stand-alone legislation that would set mandatory electric reliability standards and increase energy efficiency. Taking these steps will lower energy prices and help prevent future blackouts.
Send an email to your Senators urging them to reject the destructive energy bill: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,6043,km3,eeic,d9yw,irqz,5w4u
"Well! If you have never seen a flock of enraged birders, you don't know what danger is. These people don't just watch pewits and tweety-birds, they're into raptors, too -- falcons, eagles ... they know how to swoop and strike. If we find [Karl] Rove beaten to a pulp with binoculars, it will be no surprise. How could he ignore the immemorial warning, 'Beware the wrath of the birding legions!'" - Molly Ivins writing in a column this week about the Bush Administration's nomination of William Haynes II to the 4th Circuit Court. Haynes argued as the top Department of Defense lawyer that bombing a bird- haven in the Marianas Islands would actually be good for birds.
(1) APPALACHIA: Jack and Spill
(2) ENERGY: Explore, Enjoy, Exploit?
(3) TAKE ACTION: Protect the National Transit Program
1. APPALACHIA: Jack and Spill
Tune in to 60 Minutes this Sunday and you'll not only hear Andy Rooney ranting about how elastic bands are one of the outstanding inventions of all time, you'll also get to hear the story of Jack Spadaro, an employee at the Mine Safety and Health Administration for 30 years until being put on administrative leave for blowing the whistle on the Bush Administration. Spadaro says coal company executives and federal regulators covered up the reasons for a toxic coal slurry spill in Appalachia that ranks among the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
Read more about this Sunday's story, "A Toxic Cover- Up?" on the 60 Minutes website: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5xoe,km3,k80j,8tk6,irqz,5w4u
2. ENERGY: Explore, Enjoy, Exploit?
We've heard of the old adage "if you love something set it free..." but we've never heard "if you love something, drill the heck out of it until it bears no resemblance to the scenic wonder it once was". New Mexico's Otero Mesa is 1.2 million acres of Chihuahan Desert grassland, abundant with wildlife, cherished by locals, and targeted by the Bush Administration as a natural gas development. The irony lies in the fact that New Mexico has enormous potential for clean energy in solar and wind power and the political assets to make that potential into a reality. Exploring renewable energies would preserve Otero Mesa and create 25 times more jobs than natural gas.
Read Sierra Club President Larry Fahn's recent op-ed in the Albuquerque Tribune: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5xoe,km3,28q5,2dx,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Protect the National Transit Program
The Bush Administration and the road building industry seek a Transportation bill that threatens to create dirtier air, damage public health, and significantly weaken over 30 years of environmental and transportation planning progress. We believe there is a better way. Previous transportation bills have been bipartisan bills that were embraced by Congress and the environmental community. There is no reason to change and weaken those sound policies now.
Please send a message to your federal representative: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5xoe,km3,gc7m,5fpz,irqz,5w4u
"I want to wake up and read that General Motors has decided it will no longer make gas-guzzling Hummers and President Bush has decided to replace his limousine with an armor-plated Toyota Prius, a hybrid car that gets over 40 miles to the gallon." - Thomas Friedman's op-ed column entitled "Awaking to a Dream" in the New York Times, March 28, 2004. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5w5n,km3,2bm2,7xgz,irqz,5w4u
(1) SPECIES: Catch of the Day
(2) JUST IN: Change for the Better
(3) TAKE ACTION: Keep the "Buffer" in the Buffer Zone Rule
1. SPECIES: Catch of the Day
Six marine scientists hired to advise the Bush Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA) were shocked to see their recommendations to protect salmon and steelhead on the West Coast cut from their official report. The scientists' unedited report urged the Administration to guarantee federal protection for the fish by rewriting current policy. NOAA director William Hogarth claims the agency doesn't censor scientists but admits to asking them to separate out their public policy opinions and "not make it part of the scientific report". Sounds fishy to us!
Read more about the Administration censoring science in the L.A. Times (registration may be required): https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5w5n,km3,932p,a7wp,irqz,5w4u
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5w5n,km3,26ne,3lg2,irqz,5w4u
2. JUST IN: Change for the Better
Conservationist John Muir, a California condor and Yosemite National Park's Half Dome mountain will decorate the tail's side of the new California quarter. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled Monday that Los Angeles graphic artist Garrett Burke's design was chosen out of five finalists. The Governor called Muir, nature writer and founder of the Sierra Club, "a role model to generations of Californians and to conservationists around the world." Two billion of the new coins will be placed in circulation in January 2005.
View the new California quarter here: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5w5n,km3,ldb8,4rcb,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Keep the "Buffer" in the Buffer Zone Rule
The Bush Administration is proposing a change to a current rule that protects water quality and quantity by prohibiting mining within 100 feet of streams. The Administration wants to rewrite the rule to allow mountaintop removal coal mining companies to fill miles of streams with waste if they show that they have "minimized" the amount of waste they produce and "minimized" adverse impacts to streams. By getting rid of the ban on disturbing areas within 100 feet of streams, this proposal takes the "buffer" right out of the buffer zone rule and allows coal companies to dump waste directly into streams.
Tell the Administration to protect Appalachia's streams from poisonous mining waste and to eliminate this proposed rule change: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5w5n,km3,2jtx,m45v,irqz,5w4u
"Asks 'Does either attorney plan on inviting me on any hunting trips?'" - Number seven on David Letterman's "Top Ten Signs Your Supreme Court Justice is on the Take" during his March 16, 2004 show.
(1) TRAVEL: Conservationists Gone Wild
(2) TOXICS: Show Us Some REAL Love
(3) TAKE ACTION: Support a Transportation Bill that Protects Our Air and Water
1. TRAVEL: Conservationists Gone Wild
This week, the Sierra Club offered a Spring Break beach party without the college debauchery. Alternative Spring Break 2004 on Padre Island National Seashore provided a workshop on grassroots organizing and taught students about the history of Padre Island. Participants encouraged local citizens to sign postcards urging the Bush Administration to stop its aggressive natural gas drilling campaign on the island. Students also conducted a beach cleanup to remove trash from shrimping boats and offshore oil and gas rigs.
Interested in taking a trip that makes a difference? Check out Sierra Club's service trips outings: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5qc8,km3,6992,k7d8,irqz,5w4u
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5qc8,km3,26ne,3lg2,irqz,5w4u
2. TOXICS: Show Us Some REAL Love
The EPA this week is patting itself on the back for officially completing the cleanup of America's first Superfund toxic waste site located in Love Canal, New York. The problem is that under the Bush Administration site cleanups have fallen by 50 percent and funding decreased by 25 percent. At the heart of the matter lies the fact that this Administration refuses to support the "polluter pays" system, on which the Superfund program was based, and instead expects taxpayers to shoulder 100 percent of the cleanup fees.
Read the Associated press story "Original Superfund Site Declared Clean": https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5qc8,km3,2l8z,63d7,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Support a Transportation Bill that Protects Our Air and Water
The Bush Administration and the road building industry seek a Transportation bill that threatens to create dirtier air, damages public health, and significantly weakens over 30 years of environmental and transportation planning progress. We believe there is a better way. Previous transportation bills have been bipartisan bills that were embraced by Congress and the environmental community. There is no reason to change and weaken those sound policies now.
Please send a message to your federal representative: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5qc8,km3,gc7m,5fpz,irqz,5w4u
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